Mumbai: It will rain 34 malls in the next 3 years

[ 6 Sep, 2006 0306hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

MUMBAI: The number of big malls in the city will grow from 14 to 48 in the next three years, prompting experts to question the mall-mania and ask whether the city has the infrastructure to support them.

"Too many malls in the same area can be a problem. It is a difficult to predict what will work. But one thing is for sure; well-managed malls are here to stay," Dharmesh Jain of Nirmal Group, now adding more than 7 lakh square feet to his Mulund mall, said.

Knight Frank India retail services division head Prakrut Mehta agreed. "With so many malls mushrooming in the city, owners need to offer something different," he explained.

The worries are not without basis; in areas such as Mulund and Vashi, for instance, mushrooming malls are posing serious threat to the existing ones.

Vashi is expected to have nine malls next to each other. "The logic used by mall developers there is Vashi is a nodal point of entry into and departure from Mumbai.

Traders come here to sell their goods and have cash when they leave," Trammell Crow Meghraj retail services head Shubhranshu Pani said.

Mushrooming malls in Bhandup, Mulund and Thane are also expected to affect business of existing malls such as R Mall and Nirmal Lifestyle.

"Lifestyle has realised the challenge and has a business strategy to tackle this. The developer is trying to get everything under a single roof. Customers, who want to buy different goods or want to see different brands at the same time, will have it easy," an analyst with a retail consultancy said.

Developers, however, are optimistic. Some believe that too many malls at the same place cannot happen everywhere in a strapped of land.

"You cannot spot a mall while driving from Mulund to Parel; the city has the appetite for more malls," the owner of an upcoming mall on LBS Marg said.